Sunday, May 8, 2011

Gluten Free Light & Lovely Angel Food Cake Recipe

I remember a few times in high school when either mom or dad brought home a store-bought angel food cake and I simply ripped off pieces of it in pure sugary bliss! Soft, airy, and simply delicious. I had honestly forgotten how much I enjoyed angel food cake.

I think I even made it once or twice in my gluten filled years and it's a really beautiful cake to make. Angel Food cake is allowed to be messy. It doesn't have to be perfect. It seems a bit scarred with patches of crust scattered all over the cake and the pan. No frosting is needed. Maybe a sprinkling of powdered sugar for company... but this golden crusted gem of a cake doesn't need to be dressed up. Another fun thing about gluten free angel food cake? No gums are needed. The protein in the whipped egg whites is all you need for stability and great texture.

There are endless variations you could make with angel food cake. If you'd like it to be chocolate add a few tablespoons of cacao powder to the dry ingredients. For a lemon cake, add the zest of 1 large lemon. If you want the cake to simply be studded with chocolate, fold in 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips right before pouring into the pan. It's so easy. Please make this gluten free cake. Tell me how you made it. Tell me that you loved it!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an angel food tube pan with non-stick cooking spray, or oil and then dust it with brown rice flour. To prevent further sticking at the bottom of the pan, you could line it with cut pieces of parchment paper. In a small bowl whisk together brown rice flour, arrowroot starch, and powdered stevia (if you are using it). In the bowl of your stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, whip egg whites until they are foamy (see notes below). Add in the cream of tartar and continue to mix until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar a little at a time until stiff peaks form and the egg whites will look slightly glossy. Stop the mixer and remove the whisk attachment. Using a hand whisk slowly fold in the vanilla. Continuing to use the hand whisk, slowly fold in the flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time. Slowly pour the cake batter into the greased and dusted tube pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, the sides of the cake will also pull away from the pan. Allow the cake to cool for 10-20 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake and turn out onto a cake plate. Serve plain, with whipped cream or ice-cream, and since it's strawberry season... make sure to place a few slices strawberries on top! :-) Enjoy!

Carrie's Kitchen Notes:

Whipping Egg Whites: If you are not familiar with whipping egg whites and what each "stage" looks like, here is a good guide: http://www.baking911.com/howto/egg_whites_beat.htm. Scroll to the bottom to see pictures of the foamy stage, soft peak stage, firm peak stage, etc...

Brown rice flour/arrowroot starch: This cake is so adaptable you can use any whole grain you like. SO if you can't have rice, use sorghum, millet, or whatever pleases your palate! Simply make sure to use the same weight of flour. As with the brown rice flour, you can use whatever starch you prefer, EXCEPT potato starch. Potato starch is quite heavy so I would recommend either corn starch, tapioca starch, or even sweet rice flour. ADDITION: A reader wrote in and said she has never had any issues using potato starch in gluten free angel food cake. In my personal experience I've found potato starch to be a very heavy starch for baking purposes (and I do mean the starch not potato flour). Use your own judgement though, if it works for you that's fantastic!

Sugar: I made this lovely cake with less than half the sugar used in the original recipe and it still tastes quite sweet to me, especially with the addition of powdered stevia. Feel free to add additional sugar if you want a really sweet cake, or lessen it further. You do want a little sugar in the cake because it helps with the caramelization/ browning of the crust. I am not sure how well alternative sugars would work in this cake.

Eggs: Sorry, you have to use egg whites... they are the base of this cake!

Variations: See notes in the post above for possible variations on this simple vanilla cake! There are so many wonderful flavors you could use! I'd love to know what you come up with! My favorites would be adding lemon zest, using almond extract, mini-chocolate chips, or even a lightly spiced angel food cake with cinnamon and nutmeg!

Folding Techniques: When you're adding in the flours & the vanilla extract (or any flavor variation ingredients) use a whisk to SLOWLY fold in the ingredients. You whipped the eggs whites so they would have a wonderful texture & rise in the cake. You don't want to defeat all that hard work you did! If you quickly hand whisk/ fold in the last ingredients you can easily deflate your egg whites... and end up having a cake that doesn't rise well. So please take your time! Enjoy the process. And go make this cake!!

13 comments:

Great kitchen tips, Carrie! Can you imagine how amazing it would be if someone came up with an egg-free version of angel food cake? I have an a recipe for Heuvos Rancheros in an upcoming Living Without article, and they're attempting to come up with an egg-free version. I can't wait to see if they are able to do it! Egg-free eggs?!

Hi there...I am having a friend for supper on her birthday and was trying to think what might be a good dessert. I was thinking 'angel cake' and I opened your email and there it was!! YUM... I am definitely going to try it. Can you tell me if there is any difference between arrowroot starch and arrowroot flour.? I know there is no difference if you are talking tapioca, but there is if you are talking potato...so don't want to make a mistake here and have a disaster. Thanks.

Carrie, I LOVE LOVE LOVE angel food cake. When I was little, I didn't really like cake. Not the traditional birthday cake, anyway. So my mom would make angel food cake. She'd make lemon, and for my dad, she'd make a version with almond extract and marschino cherries. Divine. I haven't made one in a long while. It's so lovely - light, airy, and very more-ish.

This was fantastic! I substituted tapioca for arrowroot since that's what I had on hand. I also only put in half a cup of sugar and didn't add any artificial sweetener, and then topped with whipped cream (with a bit of sugar and vanilla) and added fresh strawberries and blueberries on top. It was exactly the right amount of sweetness. Thanks a bunch!